The 2015 Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, was the inaugural tri-nations series for top-level

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

in Asia and the twenty-eighth continental championship for the ARFU nations. The

Asia Rugby Championship The Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, is an annual rugby union competition held amongst national rugby sides within the Asia Rugby region. The competition was originally known as the Asian Rugby Football Tournament when founded in 1969, and was call ...

replaced the former Asian Five Nations in 2015, with only three nations competing in the top division instead of the previous five. The inaugural series included

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, Japan and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. Other Asian nations competed in the lower division tournaments. Instead of the single round-robin format used in the Asian Five Nations, the three teams played each other twice on a home and away basis. Japan, as the team finishing on top of the standings in 2015, was declared the winner. The bottom-placed team, Korea, was subject to a promotion-relegation play-off against the winner of the next lower division. However, Sri Lanka, who finished on top of Division 1, declined the opportunity to challenge.

Standings

Notes: * The final match saw the Japan v Hong Kong match abandoned due to adverse weather. It was agreed that Japan and Hong Kong would share the points, with each team receiving 3 points each.

Fixtures

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Top 3 Challenge

Due to financial reasons, the game was cancelled and South Korea remained in the Tri-nations division for 2016.

Squads

Summary

Note: Ages, caps and domestic side are of 18 April 2015 – the starting date of the tournament.

Japan

On 5 March, head coach Eddie Jones named a 31-man squad for the 2015 Asian Rugby Championship. On 11 April, Chihito Matsui and Ryohei Yamanaka was added to the squad.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong's squad for the 2015 Asian Rugby Championship. Adrian Griffiths was added to the squad for the Round 5 game with South Korea. Head Coach:

Andrew Hall Andrew James Hall (born 31 July 1975) is a former South African first-class cricketer who played from 1999 until 2011. He played as an all-rounder who bowled fast-medium pace and has been used as both an opening batsman and in the lower order. ...

South Korea

South Korea 31-man squad for the 2015 Asian Rugby Championship. Andre Coquillard and Park Hwan were added to the squad for the Round 5 game with Hong Kong. *Head coach: Chung Hyung Seok

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asian 2015 rugby union tournaments for national teams 2015 in Asian rugby union 2015 International rugby union competitions hosted by Hong Kong International rugby union competitions hosted by South Korea International rugby union competitions hosted by Japan 2014–15 in Japanese rugby union